Cognition Chapter 4 (Memory)

Question 1

Explain the 3 memory processes

Answer 1

1. Encoding (making information storageable –> typing information in keyboard)
2. Storage (keeping information for longer time –> Hard drive)
3. Retrieval (getting informatiomn when needed –> open file)

Question 2

What are the 4 Memory systems with examples

Answer 2

1. Sensory Memory (perception through senses)
2. Short term Memory (remember 129234234)
3. Working Memory (calculate 31+13=)
4. Long term Memory (What is the name of dutch king)

Question 3

Explain sensory memory and what it consists of

Answer 3

Sensory memory is the shortest-term element of memory. It is like a small buffer to store information from the senses and make them available for the consciousness.
That it why there is iconic memory (visual), echoic memory (auditory) and haptic memory (tactile)
Its why we see a wheel when a light gets spinned around

Question 4

Explain iconic memory

Answer 4

It is the storage of vision

It has a large storage capacity but is stored only very briefly (decays fast after even 1 second)

Question 5

Explain echoic and haptic memory

Answer 5

Echoic is the sensory memory for auditory information.
Haptic memory is the sensory memory for touch information.
Both have a good storage capacity which decays fast.

Question 6

Explain the “weaknesses of the sensory memory”

Answer 6

Information here decays very quickly.
It is also very sensitive for interference (If a mask is presented with a stimulus, this interferes with the memory of the stimulus)
The knowledge also cannot be used or manipulated (knowledge free)

Question 7

Explain short term memory

Answer 7

It is a temporary storage of active information
To bring information into long term memory it needs to organized (to integrate it with
previous knowledge) (elaborate rehearsal)
A normal person can remember 7 numbers

Question 8

What 4 things influence how good your short term memory works

Answer 8

1. You can enhance it with maintaince rehearsal
   If you dont it will decay
2. New information also causes previous information to be lost.
3. if you CHUNK information it works better (make sense out of stuff)
4. Information in the front (primacy effect) and in the end (recency effect) gets remembered better

Question 9

Explain the modal model and its 3 assumptions

Answer 9

It describes how the different memory systems work with each other

1. STM and LTM are seperate systems
2. the processing of short term memory determines how good LTM works
3. STM has limited capacity

Question 10

Explain general working memory

Answer 10

It is the information that is currently activated in the system
It has a multicomponent storage system which is sensory specific and processes information

Question 11

What is the embedded process model and its 3 components

Answer 11

1. Longterm memory (inactive but can get active if tasks needs it
2. Time limited active memory (subset of LTM which is also unconscious)
3. Memory with the focus of attention (subset of the time limited active memory which is conscious)

Question 12

What is the Baddeley WM model and its components

Answer 12

it has the “central executive” in the middle.
It works together with 3 components as the visuo spatial sketchpad (visual), the episodic buffer (episodic LTM) and the Phonological loop (Language)

Question 13

Explain the phonological loop and its 2 subcomponents

Answer 13

It processes acoustic and speech based information
It has 2 components
1. Phonological store (holds speech based information for some seconds)
2. Articulatory control process (converts visual to speech form)
It is used for language but also for some maths.

Question 14

What are the 4 evidences for the phonological loop

Answer 14

1. The word length effect
2. The effect of articulatory suppression
3. The irrelevant speech effect
4. The phonological similarity effect

Question 15

Explain the The word length effect

Answer 15

smaller words can easier be remembered because of more maintainance of the phonological store

This is why people with languages of faster articlation have better memory span

Question 16

What is The effect of articulatory suppression

Answer 16

If people have to rehearse a string that is irrelevant to the actual memory task, they have worse memory because the sub vocal rehearsal is disrupted

Question 17

What is The irrelevant speech effect

Answer 17

when hearing irrelevalt speech, memory is altered because capacity of phonological store is also used by it.

Question 18

What is The phonological similarity effect

Answer 18

Recall is worse if words sound similar

This is because the phonolocal store uses speech based codes when rehearsing

Question 19

Explain the visuospatial sketchpad (VSSP) and its 2 subcomponents

Answer 19

It is the process and memory of visual and spatial information

1. Visual cache (temporal storage of 2-3 objects)
2. Inner scribe (maintainance and processing of information)

Question 20

What is the The Brooks matrix task and why is it evidence for the VSSP

Answer 20

Sentences that are easy to visualize are remembered better, and for spatial sentences auditory presentation is best (then there is mre VSSP for remembering)
If the subject has to perform a visuo spatial task while remembering the spatial sentenses, it becomes a lot more difficult –> VSSP used up

Question 21

What is the episodic buffer and why does it exist

Answer 21

It acts like a global workspace for the consciousness and attention and interacts between WM and LTM
In the beginning there was only VSSP and phonological loop, but no explanation on how the WM interacts with LTM in the model.

Question 22

What is the central executive in the WM

Answer 22

It is most important because it controls information processing in the other components (inhibition/monitoring/task switching)
It is lacated in the FRONTAL LOBE

Question 23

What are errors in the central executive

Answer 23

1. Capture errors (cannot override routine behaviour: say the colour of “white”)
2. Damage to Frontal lobe cause people to fail in overriding routine behaviour which is perseveration